The use of paraffin wax mixtures is known in the printing industry. For some applications, wax blends with very closely cut C chain distribution are used. Such wax blends are obtained as fractions by distilling from natural or synthetic paraffins. Because of the closely cut C chain distribution, the wax melts quickly and completely during the printing process, and the printing ink congeals rapidly after the printing process. Such waxes ensure that the application of the printing ink to the carrier medium is clean due to their low viscosity and narrow melting range. Said waxes also lend the printing ink a corresponding sliding behaviour (“slip”) thus also performing a shielding function after the printing process.
Particularly closely cut paraffin waxes must be prepared in special distillation processes with equipment designed especially for this task, there are only limited quantities thereof available worldwide, and they are very expensive.
The problem that prompted the invention was therefore to provide novel wax blends that have a narrow, defined melting range. Unlike separately distilled wax fractions, the wax blends according to the invention are provided by mixing certain components that are more readily available and less expensive.
In this context, the blends should be converted from a solid to a low-viscosity liquid state as directly as possible. Such behaviour is required particularly in the case of printing inks that include wax mixtures as the carrier substance. These may be used in toner printing inks and as thermal transfer ribbons (TTR) or as wax-based printing inks for digital printing or powder paints.
Normally, it is not possible to use oleochemical base materials that also have a narrow melting range as an alternative to the closely cut waxes, because of the other properties of such substances, such as brittleness, crystallinity and the like.